Tokkatanic
by theblindbandit1
Summary: When a rich girl and a poor boy meet aboard the most luxierious ship in the world, theres no telling what will happen.  Tokka/Toko Rated M for cursing and mature content.
1. The Sunken Ship

**The Tokkatanic:**

**Chapter 1: The Sunken Ship:**

Faint lights pierced the blackness of the ocean as two submersibles descended. Inside one, called MIR One, there were three man huddled in the cramped space. The young man sitting at the controls of the submersible is named Yuen Muchilo, who was singing softly in Russian. On one side of him is Rien Boulds, a man in his early thirties is fast asleep against a carbon dioxide scrubber. He wears a light green shirt, the top buttons undone. He is a treasure hunter and historian. The third man, who sits on the other side of the sub of Yuen is Zhu Bovine, the pilot of the remote operated vehicle and the Titanic expert on the expedition, his quiet snores filling the cabin.

After two hours of free fall the submersible and its partner came close to the sea floor. The sub jerked as it hit the bottom of the ocean causing Rien and Zhu to snap awake. Yuen turned in his seat to look at his two team-mates, speaking in a heavy Russian accent, "We are here."

After five minutes the subs were slowly moving forward, skimming the bottom of the sea floor. The only sounds filling the sub now was the soft hum of the thrusters. Yuen steered the sub alone the gray, featureless seafloor, as Rien watched the sonar display over his shoulder. "Come on, a little to the left. She's right in front of us. Eighteen meters... fifteen... thirteen... you should see it." Rien counted down the distances as they crept closer to their target. Yuen leaned forward to get a better view from his view port to try and see through the black water. "Do you see it? I don't see it. Oh wait... There!"

Rien quickly pushed past to look through the porthole, watching as through the darkness the bow of a ship appeared into view. It stood tall from the seafloor, sitting as it did when if fell almost 84 years before, what was left of it that is. Through the porthole the ships rusticle covered bow sides is now clearly visible.

Rien turns on a camcorder turning it towards himself. A black and white version of his face is visible on the screen of the view finder. "It still gets me every time..." He said turning the camera towards the porthole, only to be interrupted. "It's just your guilt because of stealing from the dead." Rien sighed and turned the camera back to show his face. "Thanks Yuen, work with me here." He scowled before turning the camera back to view out the porthole, his expression returning back to a serious one. "It still gets me every time... to see the sad ruin of the great ship sitting here, where she landed at 2:30 in the morning, April 15th, 1912, after her long fall from the world above." Hearing him Yuen sighed in disgust at the rude comment and mutters in Russian. Zhu on the other hand, chuckles with amusement. "You are so full of shit boss."

As MIR two moves past the huge anchor on the starboard side of the ship, MIR one moves over the deck, on which anchor chains are still laid out in two neat rows. The small 22 foot long subs look like bugs moving along the large wreck. Rien continues to talk to the camera, making a sort of video log. "Dive nine. Here we are at the deck of the Titanic... Two and a half miles down. The pressure is three tons per square inch, enough to crush us like a freight train going over an ant if our hull fails. These windows are nine inches thick, and if they go... it's signorina in two microseconds."

Mir one lands on the roof of the deck house nearby. Rien claps his hands and looks at his crew, excited to get started knowing he's so close to his prize. "Right, lets go to work." Hearing this his companions moved into their positions. Zhu grabbed a pair of 3-D electronic glasses and put them on over his eyes before grabbing the controls of the R.O.V.

Outside the sub, a small black and orange robot called Snoop Dog lifts from its locks and moves forward. "Walkin' the dog." Zhu informed Rien, looking through the 3-D glasses. Snoop Dog floats away from the sub, a cord still attaching it to the ship like a robot yo-yo. Its twin video cameras swivel like insect eyes. It slowly starts to descend through an open shaft that was once the first class grand staircase. It moves down several decks then shifts into the first class reception room. It moves through the cavernous interior. The remains of the orate hand-carved woodwork which gave the ship its elegance move through the floodlights, the lines blurred by the descending rusticle formations. Stalactites of rust hang down so that at times it look like a natural grotto. Then it looks like a ghostly undersea mansion. Snoop's lights soon reveal a grand piano in amazing shape, crashed on it's side against the wall. Then a chandelier still hanging from the ceiling by it's thick wire. The lights start to play across the floor revealing a champagne bottle, then some china, a woman's high top shoe. Then the lights pass over something eerie: what looks like a child's scull but turns out to be the porcelain head of a doll. The robot then enters a corridor that looks much more preserved. Every few doorways a door hangs by its hinges.

The ROV turns and goes through a black doorway, entering room B-52, the sitting room of a promenade suite, one of the most luxurious state rooms on the Titanic. "I'm in the sitting room, heading for bedroom B-54." Zhu says, his eyes glued to the video images in his glasses, his excitement growing from the taste of treasure. "Stay off the floor. Don't stir it up like you did yesterday." Rien warns, his voice stern. "I'm trying boss." Zhu said as he went back to his controls.

Glinting in the lights are brass fixtures of a near-perfectly preserved fireplace. A crab crawls over it. Nearby are the remains of a divian and a writing desk. The dog crosses the remains of a once elegant room towards another door. It squeezes through the door frame, scraping rust and wood chunks loose on both sides. It moves out of a cloud of rust and keeps on going. "I'm crossing the bedroom" Zhu announces, raising the excitement level in the cabin. What is left of the bedroom is the remains of a pillared canopy bed, broken chairs, and a dresser. Through the collapsed wall of the bathroom, the porcelain commode and bathtub that look almost new, gleaming in the dark.

"Okay, I want to see what's under the wardrobe door." Rien says, beads of sweat running down the bridge of his nose. Zhu presses a button on his controls and the ROV deploys its manipulative arms and starts moving debris aside. A lamp is lifted, its ceramic colors as bright as they were in 1912. "Easy Zhu, take it slow." Zhu grips the wardrobe door, lying at an angle in a corner and pulls it with Snoop's gripper. As it moves a cloud of silt appears. Under the door is a dark object, and as the silt clears and Snoop's camera's show them what was under the door. "Oh baby baby. Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Zhu says, licking his lips at the sight of the treasure. "It's payday boys!" On the screen of the monitors, lit by Snoop's lights is a small combination safe.


	2. The Woman In the Picture

**Chapter 2: The Woman in the Picture-**

Once back on the deck of the Keldysh, a crowd of crewmen surrounded the dropping safe as it was lowered onto the deck by a wrench cable. The crew of the Russian research vessel, the sub crews and a money man named Mouk Davidson, who represents the limited partners were shaking hands and patting each others backs. A documentary crew is now pushing itself through the crowd to the front, ready to shoot the moment of Rien's glory. Once out of the submersibles, Rien and Zhu run over to the safe like two little boys on Christmas. "Who's the best...? Say it." Zhu taunts poking Rien's shoulder incessantly. Rien groans and pushes Zhu's hand away. "You are Zhu." He admits then turns to the camera crew. "Rolling?" The was a click of a switch and then the cameraman nodded.

Getting the go ahead Rien nodded to the technicians, who began to drill through the safe as Rien provides commentary.

"Well, here it is, the moment of truth. Here's where we find out if the time, the sweat, the money spent to charter this ship and these subs, to come out here to the middle of the Atlantic... were worth it. If what we think is in that same... in that safe... It will be."

He talks to the camera then grins wolfishly in anticipation. The door is pried loose then clangs to the desk, catching his attention. Rien kneels down and peers hungrily into the safe's wet interior before digging through the soggy contents. Moments later, his face answers the question that he had asked just a few minutes before.

"Shit." Rien mutters and all the cheering stops. "You know boss, the same thing happened to Geraldo and his career never recovered." Zhu says. Rien's face immediately reddened in anger then looked at the cameraman. "Get that thing out of my face!"

Later in the preservation room on the Keldysh, technicians are carefully removing paper from the safe and putting them in a tray of water. Other artifacts are being cleaned and categorized on a table close by. Mouk is talking on the satellite phone with the investors while Rien yells at the video crew.

"You send out what I tell you when I tell you! I sign your paychecks! Now set up for the up link!" He barks at them then pinches his nose in frustration. Mouk covers the phone with his hand and looks at his frustrated boss. "The partners want to know how it's going." Rien drops his hand and glares at him. "How's it going? It's going like a first date in prison, what do ya think!" He snaps then grabs the phone, his voice going instantly calm.

"Hi, Ran? Cha? Look it wasn't in the safe... no look, don't worry about it, there are still plenty of places it could be... in the floor debris in the suite, in the mother's room, in the purser's safe on C deck..." He explains then pauses, his eyes transfixed on something. "Hang on a second." He says into the receiver then puts the satellite phone down.

One of the technicians lightly moves the papers in a tray of water to the side using a pair of tongs. This in turn reveals a pencil drawing of a woman. Rien looks closely at the drawing, which after the bath is in excellent shape, except the edges which have partly disintegrated. The woman is beautiful, in her late teens to early twenties in age. She is nude, though posed in casual modesty. She lays on an empire divian, in a pool of light the seems to emanate from her eyes. In the lower right hand corner is the date: April 14, 1912 and the initials SK. Rien notices that the girl is not entirely nude, for around her neck is a small chain necklace with a large stone hanging in the center. His mouth gapes open. His prize hangs around the neck of the woman in the picture.

"I'll be God damned."

Later the satellite feed from the Keldysh is shot in a CNN page of a television screen. Currently, the announcer is introducing Rien.

"Treasure hunter Rien Boulds is best known for finding Spanish gold in sunken galleons in the Caribbean. Now he is using deep submarine technology to work two and a half miles down at another famous wreck... Titanic. He is with us live via satellite from a Russian research ship in the middle of the Atlantic... Hello Rien?" Rien obviously gets her audio feed and starts to respond to her.

Yes, hi. You know. Titanic is not just a shipwreck. Titanic is THE shipwreck. It's the Mt. Everest of shipwrecks." He begins, and continues to talk to the viewers of the news show.

The news feed is playing on a television in a living room of a small rustic house. Shelves on the walls are full of ceramics, figurines and all the other wall space is covered with drawing s and paintings. Outside of the windows it is a quiet morning in Ojai, California. Inside the room, which looks like a studio, among all the clutter is an ancient woman sitting at a potter's wheel. As she throws a pot the liquid brown clay covers her hands, which are spotted with age but are still still strong and careful. Rien's conversation still emanates from the television.

"I've planned this expedition for three years, and now we're out here recovering some amazing things.. things that will have enormous historical and educational value." He explains as the reporter listens.

"But it's no secret that education is not your main purpose. You're a treasure hunter. So, what is the treasure that you are hunting?" The announcer asks, causing Rien to look insulted.

"I'd rather show you then tell you. And we think we are very close to doing just that."

The woman seems very entranced by the news story. Her name is Toph Curtis. Her body is frail and wrinkled but her eyes are as strong and bright as those of a young girl. Toph gets up and walks to the living room where the television is wiping clay off her hands with a rag. A younger woman, Miki Curtis, rushes up to her. "Turn that up please." Toph asks as she leans back against the couch. Miki moves to the television, turning up the volume. The announcer starts to speak again.

"Your expedition is the center of a storm of controversy over salvage rights and even ethics. Many experts are calling you a grave robber." Rien's face now fills the television screen. "Nobody called the expedition that recovered artifacts from King Tut's tomb grave robbing. I have museum-trained experts here, making sure everything is preserved properly. Look at this drawing we found just today..." He says as his picture disappears from the screen and the drawing of the woman with the necklace fills the screen.

"... a piece of paper that has been underwater for 84 years.. and my team was able to preserve it intact. Should this drawing have remained unseen at the bottom of the ocean forever, when now we can see it..?" Toph eyes are glued to the screen, her mouth hanging open.

"I'll be God damned."

That night on the Keldysh the MIR subs are being launched. MIR two is already in the water and Rien is climbing up the ladder to board MIR one as Mouk runs up to him."Rien there's a satellite call for you." He says and holds out the phone. "Mouk, we're launching. See the submersibles going into the water? Take a message." Mouk just smiles. "No, trust me you want to take this call." Rien sighs and climbs down the ladder and takes the phone, pushes the blinking button. The call is from Toph Curtis, calling from her kitchen. "You have to speak up, she's kind of old." Mouk warns, Rien sighs, thinking this is a hoax.

"This is Rien Boulds. What can I do for you Mrs..." Rien trails off and Mouk interjects. "Curtis, Toph Curtis." Rien's voice now grows strong again. "Mrs. Curtis."

Toph smiles, like she has a little secret. "I was just wondering if you had found the 'Eye of the Moon' yet, Mr. Boulds." Rien's face freezes in surprise and he fumbles to keep hold of the phone. Mouk smiles, "I told you you would want to takes this call. Rien looks at him then speaks back into the phone. "Alright Toph you have my attention, can you tell me who the woman in the picture is?" Toph nods and smiles wide.

"Oh yes, the woman in the picture is me."


	3. On the Keldysh

**Chapter 3: On the Keldysh-**

The next day before Toph was scheduled to land on the Keldysh, Rien and Zhu started arguing about their source from the telephone and whether she's the real thing. Toph's helicopter is fast approaching their ship in the middle of nothing but ocean for miles. As the two argue, one of the subs is being prepared for another dive.

"She's a Goddamn liar! A nutcase! Like that Anastasia babe!" Mouk steps between the two shouting over Zhu's complaints. "The helicopter is coming." Rien nods and starts heading to the landing pad, Zhu and Mouk following close behind him. Zhu continues shouting over the noise of people working.

"She says she's Toph Bei Fong right? Toph Bei Fong died on the Titanic at the age of 17. If she had lived she would be over a hundred by now!" Rien looks over his shoulder at Zhu. "A hundred and one next week." Zhu just rolls his eyes and continues.

"Okay so she's a very old Goddamn liar! I traced her back to the twenties when she was working as an actress! An ACTRESS! There's your first clue Sherlock! Her name was Toph Kuruk, then she married a guy named Curtis, moved to Ceder Rapids and popped out a couple of kids. Now Curtis is dead and from what I hear Ceder Rapids is dead." The helicopter starts to land on the ship's landing pad, causing Rien to shout over the sound of the rotors.

"And everyone who knows about the diamond is supposed to be dead or on this ship, but she knows!"

As the helicopter lands on the landing pad the large down blast stifles the sound of any argument. After it lands the Keldysh and copter crew work together to unload the contents. Several suitcases are lowered before Toph herself is lowered down in a wheelchair, Miki following right behind her. The chief of the crew hands a puzzled Keldysh crewman a fishbowl full of fish. It is very apparent that Toph does not travel light. Toph looks fragile among all the high tech equipment and the strong deck crew. After everything is unpacked it is take to a stateroom aboard the ship.

Once everything is in the state room Miki starts to unpack Toph's things while Toph arranges several framed photos onto a dresser, placing them all around the fishbowl. Rien and Zhu watch them from the doorway before Rien speaks.

"Is your stateroom alright?" He asks before taking a small step into the room. Toph looks up at him then back to the photos that she is placing. "Yes. Very nice. Have you met my granddaughter Miki? She takes care of me." Toph smiles looking at Miki, who looks from Rien to her grandma. "Yes, we met just a few minutes ago, grandma. Remember, up on deck?" Toph bops her head like she now remembers. "Oh yes."

Rien glances back at Zhu and sighs as Zhu rolls his eyes at him. Toph sits back in the wheelchair now that she has finished arranging the photos. "There, I have to have my pictures when I travel." Zhu rolls his eyes again and rubs his forehead. Rien glances at him then looks back at Toph.

"Would you like anything? Anything at all?" Toph looks up at him then at her photos.

"I would like to see my drawing."

After everyone has moved into the preservation room, Toph is now looking at the drawing in the tray of water that is keeping it preserved until they can find a way to keep in permanently preserved. Toph is now facing herself in a span of 84 years as the picture ripples and sways, making it seem almost alive. Toph's mind is flashing from the present to the moment when she modeled for this drawing.

_A man's hand, holding a graphite crayon carefully creating the curve of her shoulder and the shape of her hair with two gentle lines. _

Toph focuses, almost transfixed by the face of the woman in the drawing.

_The man's eyes are just visible from over the sketch pad he is drawing on. He looks up suddenly, his bright blue eyes soft, but direct._

Toph smiles remembering. Rien gets up and grabs his reference photo of the necklace and sits beside Toph holding it where she can see.

"King Sozin the Second wore a fabulous stone, called the Eye of the Crown, which disappeared in 1792, about the time Sozin lost everything from the neck up. The theory is that the Eye of the Crown was chopped too, re-cut into the shape of an eye. After which it became known as the Eye of the Moon because of the blue color that somehow formed in the middle of the flawless diamond. Today it would be worth more than the Hope Diamond." He explains to Toph and Miki.

"It was a dreadful heavy thing." Toph says, breaking the silence after Rien's monologue as she points to the drawing. "I only wore it this once." Miki looks at her grandmother, confused and concerned that Toph is imagining things.

"You actually believe this is you grandma?" Miki asks, a concerned tone wavering in her voice. Toph looks over her shoulder at her, smiling wide.

"It is me dear. Wasn't I one hot babe?" Miki and Rien chuckle lightly then look at each other. Rien quickly looks away back at Toph holding out the picture of the diamond again.

"I tracked it down through insurance records... an old claim that was settled under terms of absolute secrecy. Do you know what the person who filed that claim was, Toph?" Rien asks her. Toph nods.

"Someone named Kuzon, I should imagine." Rien smiles widely and nods obviously hearing the right answer.

"That's right, Kuzon. Pittsburgh steel tycoon. For a diamond necklace his son Zuko Kuzon bought in France for his fiancee... you... a week before he sailed on the Titanic. And the claim was filed right after the sinking. So the diamond must have gone down with the ship." He explains further than looks at Miki pointing to the date at the bottom of the drawing, "See the date?" 

"April 14... 1912." Miki answers as she reads the date, then looks at Rien not getting why that has anything to do with why she and her grandmother are there.

"If your grandma is who she says she is, then she was wearing the necklace the day the Titanic sank." He says then leans on the table looking at Toph smiling. "Which makes you my new best friend." As Toph smiles Rien moves over to a table where some of the other recovered artifacts are sitting. "These are some of the things we recovered from your stateroom."

Lying on the table are several objects, from normal for valuable. Rose is pushed over to the table, sitting up from the wheelchair to see over the edge of the table. Her trembling hand lifts up a tortoise shell hand mirror that has pearls laid into it.

"This was mine. How extraordinary! It looks the same as the last time I saw it." She says then turns the mirror over and looks at herself in the cracked glass. "The reflection has changed a bit." She says as she sets the mirror back down and picks up a ornate hair comb. A jade butterfly takes flight on the ebony handle of the comb. She turns it slowly remembering a rush of images and emotions that have lain dormant for eight decades as she handles the comb. Rien slowly approaches her, being careful not to upset her.

"Are you ready to go back to Titanic Toph?"

After leaving the preservation room, everyone moved to the screening room full of television monitors. On them are images from the MIR subs and the two ROVs. Toph is looking at the screens, particularly enjoying one of the bow railing. Rien guesses that it obviously means something to her, and goes to say something but is cut off as Zhu pulls up his simulation onto a monitor. Miki turns Toph's chair so she can see the monitor.

"We've put together the world's largest database on the Titanic. Okay, here..." Zhu explains. Rien looks at Toph then looks at Zhu.

"Toph might not want to see this Zhu..." He warns but Toph raises a hand and shakes her head. "No, no. It's fine. I'm curious."

Zhu smiles with an 'I told you so' look on his face and starts a computer simulation on the screen, which he narrates as it plays.

"She hits the berg on the starboard side and it sort of bumps along... punching holes like a Morse code... dit dit dit, down the side. Now she's flooding in the forward compartments.. and the water spills over the bulk heads, which sadly don't go any higher than E deck. As her bow is going down, her stern goes up... slow at first and then faster and faster until it's lifting all that weight, maybe 20 to 30 thousand tons... out of the water and the hull can't take that kind of pressure. So what happens next? SKRTTT! It splits. Right down to the keel, which acts like a big hinge. Now the bow swings down and the stern falls back level. But the weight of the bow pulls the stern up vertical, and the bow section detaches, heading for the bottom. The stern bobs like a cork, floods and goes under at around 2:20 a.m. Two hours and forty minutes after the collision.

"The bow pulls out of its dive and planes away, almost half a mile, before it hits the bottom going maybe 12 miles an hour. KABOOM! The stern implodes as it sinks, from the pressure, and rips apart from the force of the current as it falls, landing like a big pile of junk. Cool huh?"

"Thank you for that... fine forensic analysis Mr. Bovine. Of course... the experience of it was somewhat less clinical." Toph says solemnly. Rien looks at Zhu annoyed then back at Toph.

"Will you share it with us?"

Toph's eyes go back to the screens, looking at the sad ruins that are right under the ship they now sit on. Toph can hear ghostly waltz music in her head, followed by faint and echoing voices of officers shouting "Women and children ONLY!"

_She looks around a crowd of screaming faces. Pandemonium and terror filling the deck. People are crying, praying, kneeling on the deck. Just impressions... flashes in the dark..._

Toph looks at another monitor, where the camera on SNOOP DOG is feeding video from a rusted debris-filled corridor. She looks at the endless row of doorways sliding past, like open screaming mouths.

_Rose sees the image of a child, three years old at most, standing ankle deep in water in the middle of an endless corridor. The child is lost, alone and crying._

Toph seems shaken by the flood of memories and emotions that fill her mind. Her green eyes well up with tears and she puts her head in her hands, sobbing silently. Miki takes the handles of the wheelchair and starts to push Toph out. "I'm taking her to rest."

"NO!" Toph shouts, her voice surprisingly strong. The happy old lady that once was sitting in the chair is now gone, replaced with a woman with eyes of green steel. Rien signals for everyone to stay quiet. "Tell us Toph."

Toph looks up at the monitors, staring at the images of the ruined ship. "It's been 84 years..." As she goes to continue Rien interrupts her.

"Just try to remember." He says softly, but Toph holds up a hand to silence him.

"It's been 84 years... And I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had never been used... The sheets had never been slept in. Titanic was a new ship." Just as she finishes this sentence Rien flips on a mini-recorder and sets it on the table near her.

"Titanic was called the ship of dreams. And it was... It really was..."


End file.
